What to Expect (Revelation 6)

Big Idea: Expect to suffer in this world, and put your hope in Jesus.

When we had our children, one of the most helpful books we bought was called What to Expect When You’re Expecting. Yes, they had this book even back then. It was such a helpful book to understand what was happening at every stage of the pregnancy.

This passage could be titled “What to Expect as a Christian.” This chapter helps us understand what life in this world will be like. This chapter will help us have accurate expectations and deep understanding of life in this world until Jesus comes back.

If you want to know what to expect in life, you need the message of this chapter.

Introducing Revelation 6

We're now approaching the challenging sections of Revelation. This is the part you’ve been waiting for. Preachers often preach up until Revelation 5, and stop before they get to this passage. But we need this passage to help us understand what’s happening in the world today.

Let me set the scene for you. John wrote Revelation in the mid-90s AD while exiled on Patmos, during a time when the Christian church was small and persecuted, and the Roman Empire was at its height.

So far, in chapters 1 to 5, we’ve seen three things:

• Chapter 1 peeled back the curtain of history and showed us that history isn’t what it seems. Chapter 1 gave us a vision of Jesus who reigns in heaven.
• In chapters 2-3, we discovered that Jesus has a message for the church. Let me summarize the message: stay faithful to Jesus no matter what. Stay loyal to Him despite persecution, false teaching, wealth, or apathy.
• Then in chapters 4 and 5, we get a vision of the throne room of heaven. God sits on his throne in glory, and only Jesus can unfold God's plan for the world, including history's unfolding and the final judgment.

That’s where we are so far. Revelation 1 to 5 reveals Jesus as both the glorious Lord of his churches and the worthy Lamb who fulfills God's historical plan.

And that brings us to chapter 6.

Opening the Seals

In Revelation 5, the question was, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” The scroll symbolizes God's sovereign plan for history, judgment, and redemption, which can only unfold once it is opened. So who will open it? Who has the moral authority and right to implement God’s plans for history?

The response is clear: Jesus! Jesus alone qualifies because he perfectly fulfilled God's will and redeemed humanity through His death and resurrection. When Jesus takes the scroll, all heaven erupts in worship, recognizing his unique right to reveal and execute God's plans.

Then in chapter 6, Jesus begins opening the seals, setting God's plans in motion. “Now I watched when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals…” (6:1).

And here’s what we find in chapter 6 in one word: judgment. Perfect judgment. There are seven seals. Seven represents perfection in Revelation, so seven seals signifies God's perfect judgment on the world. Revelation 6 tells us what we can expect as we live in this world.

Let me pause here to say that there are different ways to interpret the timing of what we read. Some see them as events that happened in Roman times. Others view them as future events before Christ's return. Most likely, they represent patterns that occur throughout history between Christ's first and second coming. These seals symbolize historical events and patterns from Jesus' first coming to his return. This describes what we can expect from this world as we wait for Jesus to return. It’s the unfolding of God’s plan for this world at this time.

What does it look like? Judgment. Specifically, three kinds of judgment in this chapter, which covers the first six scrolls. Here’s what we can expect:

Expect Human-Caused Disasters (6:1-8)

In verses 1 to 8, the Lamb opens the first four seals. As he does, one of the living creatures around the throne shouts, “Come!” This summons the riders of four colored horses. Remember, Revelation is highly symbolic. These horses come from Zechariah chapters 1:8-11 and 6:1-8. They go out in all directions to the four corners of the world.

The four living creatures constantly praise God in chapters 4 and 5, and also call for his judgment on the wicked world.

Here are the first four seals that Jesus opens. They’re all disasters caused by humanity:

• Military conquest (White Horse, 6:1-2) — Many have taken this rider to be Jesus. But it seems more likely, that as one of the four, that this rider represents military conquest. Here you have a conqueror ready to go out and conquer, which you know will lead to trouble.
• War and bloodshed (Red Horse, 6:3-4), including conflict among nations.
• Inflation leading to food scarcity, famine, and poverty (Black Horse, 6:5-6). Luxury items are untouched, but the necessities of life are out of reach due to excessive inflation.
• Death (Pale Horse, 6:7-8), including widespread mortality and destruction

What do you see in verses 1-8? The things we read about in the newspaper every day. You have cycles of human disaster - conquest leading to war, which causes economic crisis, ultimately resulting in widespread death. It's a pattern of how human suffering often unfolds in sequence. You see it all throughout history, including today. Expect it.

Notice that these come at Jesus' command, not from God's enemies. These disasters are forms of God's present judgment on a rebellious world, not just his future judgment. Current world troubles aren't random or controlled by evil. Jesus allows limited judgments that both address rebellion and bolster believers' faith.

As Nancy Guthrie writes:

Rather than seeing judgment only as something that will happen at the end of time, we need to see that even now a world that has rejected and rebelled against God is experiencing judgment. It’s not yet the final judgment. That’s coming, but this world is experiencing a measure of that judgment now.

But that’s not all.

Expect Persecution and Martyrdom (6:9-11)

The fifth seal represents persecution:

When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.

Here you have a picture of Christians who have been martyred for their faith. They’re crying out to God for justice. While they wait for God’s ultimate justice, they’re given white robes, representing moral purity. But they’re also told to wait. God’s full justice for their deaths will come, but not yet.

What’s this teaching us? We can expect to be persecuted. Not only will the world experience violence and bloodshed, but believers can expect to persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ. The period between Christ’s resurrection and return is characterized by turmoil in the world and the advance of the gospel, but the advance of the gospel will not go unopposed.

This is happening. It’s estimated that, today, 13 believers will be killed for their faith. And tomorrow. And the day after that. That is what it means to live in this world at this time.

There’s one more seal in this chapter:

Expect Final Judgment (6:12-17)

The sixth seal brings cosmic disturbances, signaling the imminent judgment and the end of the age.

…there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” (6:12-17)

Earthquakes. Cosmic disturbances. Utter terror, worldwide panic, and fear of God’s judgment.

The world is usually orderly. From molecules to weather patterns to astronomical cycles, we understand a lot about how the world operates. But in verses 12 to 17, the natural stability that the world enjoys is interrupted. Heaven and earth begin to fall apart. But, as we see in verse 17, what’s most terrifying isn’t the disruption of the natural order. It’s standing before the wrath of the Lamb. As D.A. Carson says, “What sinners dread most is not death, but the unshielded presence of the glory of God.”

John writes to a small, beleaguered group of churches in modern-day Turkey. They’re facing all kinds of pressure. The Roman Empire is pressing in. The church is small and it looks very fragile. John has a message for them from Jesus himself: It’s going to get worse before it gets better. God is judging the world, and history is going to look very rocky, with wars, violence, death, and martyrdom.

But it’s not because God has lost control of the world. It’s because God is very much in charge of the world, and Jesus is opening God’s plan for the world, which involves God’s judgment and ultimately our salvation. This represents two thousand years of history, and we can expect it to continue until Jesus returns.

So What?

So what? What does this mean for us today? Three things.

First: don’t be surprised when life is hard.

Friends, it’s going to get worse before it gets better. Don’t be surprised when you open the newspaper and things look bad. Don’t be surprised when you hear of wars and injustice and economic disparity and death. Don’t be surprised that Christians will suffer for their faith and die. We’ve been warned. Read Matthew 24. Read this passage. Life will be hard. In this passage, God is setting expectations for what life will be like.

Second, it will be hard because God is just.

Why is life hard? Not because God is absent but because God is just. I love how James Hamilton puts it:

If you love God’s glory, it offends you when people take the good gifts he has given and use them against him. If you love God’s glory, it offends you when people refuse to honor God as God and give thanks to him. If you love God’s glory, you want to see justice done.
If you love God’s glory, it will not surprise you that when Jesus takes control by laying his hands on the scroll in chapter 5, the wrath of God begins to fall in chapter 6. It will not surprise you. It will satisfy you. God has been patiently storing up wrath for all these long ages. God has been allowing crimes and injustices and blasphemies and abominations for so long, and he has been tolerating such lies and calumnies to be spoken about him all these years. Revelation 6 promises that one day the wrath will begin to fall. The debt finally comes due. Justice will be done. The wicked will give account. The righteous will be avenged. God will be glorified in his justice.

Why is history unfolding the way it is? Because God is on the throne, and his plan to bring justice in the world is unfolding. We are experiencing the consequences of the world’s rebellion against a holy and righteous God who will judge evil. Jesus compared them to birth pangs (Matthew 24:8): they’re not pleasant right now, but it’s a necessary process followed by what’s coming that will be very, very good.

This means that we should cling to our future hope. Cling to Jesus. And tell as many people as possible about him so they can put their hope in him too.

Don’t be surprised when life is hard. It’s hard because God is just. Finally:

Expect that in Jesus, we can stand.

In verse 17, the terrified people ask a very good question: “Who can stand?” There’s an answer that comes in the next chapter: those who are in Jesus Christ can stand. If you’re in Jesus, you don’t have to fear anything that can happen to you no matter how hard life gets. Evil may seem to be winning now, but Jesus — who already defeated evil through his death on the cross — will return to save His people and eliminate all opposition.

So buckle up. God's judgment is unfolding through human history, but those who trust Jesus can stand firm knowing that they’re safe in him.

Expect to suffer in this world, and put your hope in Jesus.